Atherton University, freshman year. Kathryn, Randall, Jesse come from different worlds, but find themselves unexpectedly drawn together. For each of them, college promises a bright future and a way to disconnect from a dark, haunted past. But as winter sets in, their secret histories threaten to disrupt the layers of deceit that protect their fragile new lives.

         One dark night a professor's wife is found drowned in an icy river, and rumors of murder threaten the safe haven of Atherton. Within days, Ranall's illicit affair with the professor is about to be revealed in the local press. Then, an old mystery emerges from the shadows as people recall the discovery of a co-ed's corpse in a frozen creek twenty years before. Gradually, the three friends find themselves snared in a web of lies, a web spun long before their days at Atherton. Snowbound on the university campus, they are unwitting captives of a malevolent force that drives them inexorably toward the "snow garden" of the title- a place of nightmares that is all too real, and all too near.~ Summary from the book...

I especially liked how the relationship between Randall and Kathryn was described because it's like the perfect friendship a person could ever really want.

I didn't like the fact that Jesse's past wasn't as unraveled as the other character's involved in the story. You have to assume and try to solve his past while you are reading and his unexpected death sort of puts your curiosities to an end in a way.

When I finished this book I wanted to go watch Pearl Harbor and a bunch of other movies involving violence...

This book made me feel that this sort of situation is always possible and all the small events in the story are very common. I guess it made me sort of aware and more leery about some people because the two-faced characters where described so realistic that you can't help but recall the character when you run into someone that reminds you of that two-faced character. (I don't think I'm making any sense...)

The author of this book definitely lives up to his mother, Anne Rice- the bestselling novelist's reputation and seems to appear more well planned about these little twists that make the book so well written. I am definitely putting him on my favorite authors list.

I recommend this book to those that are always interested in books with well planned mysteries and unpredictable twists.

I certainly enjoyed this book and I recommend you to read it sometime. It's the type of book you can't put down or tear your eyes away from.

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Created Aug 07, 2002 at 2:58pm • Submit your own review...